At least 13 Iraqis killed on Christmas Day, as Bush thanks troops [View All]

At least 13 Iraqis were killed in a string of Christmas Day shootings and bombings, as US President George W. Bush thanked American soldiers for their sacrifice and for protecting America.

In Baghdad, rescuers lifted blackened corpses from the ruins of a Christmas Eve suicide truck bombing that killed eight people, further unnerving Iraq's embattled Christian community as they celebrated the birth of Christ.

Five Iraqis, including a woman, were killed and another five wounded when a makeshift bomb exploded on a road frequented by US convoys in the volatile bastion of Samarra, said police.

To the south, three Iraqis were killed in another deadly bombing between Najaf and Karbala, a week after twin attacks killed 66 people in the two holy Shiite Muslim cities.

A doctor at a clinic in Khan al-Nus, north of Najaf, said three Iraqis died and two were wounded when a car bomb exploded in the path of a US military convoy, which escaped unscathed.

The Najaf police chief has accused Damascus of being behind last Sunday's bombing, charging that a suspect "confessed that Syrian intelligence services had played a role".

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